DRMetrix will begin distributing a new version of its weekly spend index™ retail ranking report for the AS SEEN ON TV industry to retailers and DRTV marketers beginning 4/18/16.  Click on the links below for a sneak preview!

DRMetrix monitors national cable networks, identifies and tracks airings for all DRTV short and long form creative using state of the art ACR and optical character recognition technologies.  The end result is the industry’s most accurate retail reporting for the DRTV industry.  DRMetrix is now detecting over 700,000 unique airings a month and has identified nearly 10,000 unique DRTV creatives across over 2,200 DRTV advertisers.

If you are a retailer, or DRTV marketer involved in the selling of AS SEEN ON TV products, contact DRMetrix for a free weekly subscription!  You can also sign up for a complimentary subscription by visiting booth 619 at the DRMA Show in San Diego week of April 25th, 2016.

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There is one undeniable thing about technology – it’s changing everything.  You may not realize it yet but Automated Content Recognition (ACR) technology is the next big  paradigm shift for the DRTV industry.  It is ushering forth a new era of transparency and AVS™ from DRMetrix is leading the way.

The ACR technology behind AVS™ tracks short and long form DRTV ads running on national cable networks.  In a relatively short amount of time, the technology has identified and cataloged 10,000 unique DRTV ads that have collectively aired over 8 million times.  Each unique creative has been assigned to one of 122 industry categories.  Each ad is also associated with one of nearly 2000 DRTV advertisers identified in the AVS™ database.

The impact of AVS™ is just beginning to be felt as early adopters begin to experiment with DRMetrix’s new groundbreaking service.  One such adopter wanted to grow their lead generation business and used AVS™ to determine the networks and ROS dayparts that were performing best for different lead generation categories.  This same customer, who has since become an ardent fan of AVS™ for its competitive media research value, only recently came to the realization that they could also use AVS™ to track their own airings.  When the customer had their “ah ha!” moment they were a little embarrassed at overlooking this significant capability of AVS™.  Now, they are planning to use AVS™ to not only track competitive airings but also their own airings.  With no need to watermark or encode your ads, AVS™ happens to be the simplest and most cost effective airings verification solution on the market.

Those using AVS™ for tracking their own airings, marvel when mere minutes after ads clear they see each airing appear in the online AVS™ system.  Users are also able to click and play back the commercial just as it aired live.  What a convenience should you ever need to confirm whether or not the correct 800 creative ran!  The AVS™ video clip includes pre and post roll so you can see a snippet of what ran before and after each ad placement.  AVS™ also takes a snapshot of the call to action frame and saves it as a thumbnail as a quick and easy way to audit your call to action.

U.S. Retailers are starting to pay close attention to DRMetrix’s new technology which delivers far more accurate weekly rankings of the top AS SEEN ON TV brands based on national cable spend.  DRMetrix has been sharing its innovative rankings with both retailers and select DRTV marketers on a complimentary basis.  In the spirit of transparency, DRMetrix  has also invited DRTV marketers to tour AVS™ and audit for themselves the creatives and airings that AVS™ has detected for their brands.  Haven’t had a chance to tour AVS™ yet?  Be sure and visit DRMetrix at booth #619 at the DRMA Convention later this month (week of April 25th) in San Diego.

“As part of our commitment to provide the most accurate AS SEEN ON TV product rankings to both the DRTV & Retail Industries, we are making available to all stakeholders a free weekly subscription to our Spend Index™ retail rankings.” announced Joseph Gray, founder of DRMetrix.  The company has been providing free weekly research to the retail industry for several months now and has recently started to offer the same to DRTV companies that are involved in selling their products through retail.  DRMetrix directly monitors the National Cable Network feeds to insure a higher level of accuracy.  Additionally, on the networks that contribute to its weekly ranking report, DRMetrix is able to segment national airings from less expensive DRTV airings that are inserted into what are known as “cue tone” ad breaks.  DRTV airings that fall into “cue tone” ad breaks are projected to be viewed by only 10% of households watching television and generally skewed to rural market viewers.  “The cue tone airings don’t drive national retail sales at the same level as true national airings”, explains Gray, “therefore, it’s imperative that we are able to segment these airings and discount them in our ranking methodology”.

DRMetrix uniquely factors in all of these considerations which assures retailers the most accurate assessment of DRTV product rankings.  DRMetrix hopes that providing this information in an open and transparent manner will help to increase the viability of the entire AS SEEN ON TV retail category.  Gray concludes, “We believe there is a strong correlation between TV spend and retail success.  Those products that generate the most consumer response and greatest media expenditures should be properly recognized so that the retail industry can prioritize them accordingly.”

Thanks Response for the recent coverage regarding AVS™  The debut article written in December was great and so is the more recent Q&A in January!

Have you ever run a DRTV campaign and didn’t get the results you expected?  This is typically followed by the nagging thought, “Maybe I’ve missed something…“.  Of course, the first thing we do is confirm that the ads really cleared.  Many of us employ ad tracking services that are supposed to answer this question.  However, all they can really tell us is that an encoding associated with our ad was picked up which falls terribly short of answering a number of critical questions such as:  Did the entire ad run or was it cut off?  Did the correct 800 number appear in the spot?  Were the video and audio levels correct?  Here’s a question you may not have thought to ask:  When the network ran my high definition ad on their standard def channel did my toll free number get cut off? 

Below are actual screen shots of a DRTV ad as shown on a standard definition channel.  As you can see, the 800 number extends past title safe and is cut off leaving consumers with no way to respond.

Fortunately, airings verification services are starting to get better.  DRMetrix has created AVS™ a system that tracks all DRTV short and long form ads running on National Cable Networks.  One of the unique aspects of AVS™ is that it also records a copy of each airing.  So, mere minutes after an ad runs, all of its details appear online as well as a video link so you can watch the ad exactly as it aired.  DRMetrix monitors National Cable Network feeds on a 24/7 basis and retains a video copy of all airings for 10 full days.  AVS™ provides airings detail on a real time basis, or in a daily file, for any creative for just $350 for an entire year!  You’ll also receive free cloud based access to the AVS™ online system where you can see all of your airings as they occur in real time with the ability to click and watch.  No encoding or replacing of air tapes is required.

Next time you are troubleshooting a DRTV campaign, and have that nagging thought, just remember all the answers are just a click away!

Hey DRMA members, if you haven’t checked out the updated Industry Research section at the DRMA’s Website yet, you’re in for a real treat!  As a DRMA member, you now have exclusive access – monthly – to the top 200 direct response TV campaigns in the U.S., plus the top 40 Spanish-language DRTV campaigns powered by DRMetrix!  Rankings are available across four industry categories: short-form products; lead generation; brand DR; and long-form campaigns.  To learn why DRMetrix’s DRTV Spend Index™ Rankings are the most accurate in the industry, click here!

By Joseph Gray

I began my career in the direct response television (DRTV) industry back in 1989. During a 22-year period, I built several successful companies on the agency and lead-generation sides of the business, which I ended up selling and exiting from in 2011.  At the time, I knew that I wanted to refocus and do something different.

I had developed a passion for DRTV research back in 2003 when I was invited to co-chair the DRTV Research Committee for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). During this time, I discovered that much of the research data our industry relies upon is terribly inaccurate. The big television research companies have largely ignored the DRTV industry, failing to monitor infomercials and only offering limited data on DRTV spots. The smaller boutique DRTV research companies do not monitor the cable networks directly, instead receiving their signals through intermediaries, such as local cable or direct to consumer satellite.

Taking advantage of this situation, some DRTV marketers and agencies target buys on such “intermediaries,” knowing it will make their media buys appear larger. Using this approach, some DRTV brands have been awarded the No. 1 industry rank despite spending minimal dollars on national cable. This systemic problem exists because national cable networks are not being monitored directly by the majority of DRTV research companies. At DRMetrix, we believe the DRTV industry deserves better.

DRMetrix deployed its monitoring technology at the beginning of 2015 to directly monitor national cable networks — 24/7/365. Like finding a single strand of DNA, intelligent and automated technology analyzes the digital attributes of every commercial and program to find new DRTV spots and infomercials. To date, across the millions of commercials that DRMetrix’s system has analyzed, more than 500,000 DRTV airings are being identified per month.

DRMetrix also tracks ad breaks in order to determine whether spots are running in local or national breaks. This is an important distinction, because advertisers only pay an average of 10 cents on the dollar to run their spot inside of a local break on national networks. Even if you’re monitoring the national cable networks directly, you can’t deliver accurate industry rankings if you are unable to segment local from national breaks. These are just some of the unique capabilities that make DRMetrix’s DRTV Spend Index™ Rankings the most accurate in the industry.

I received an email reminder this morning to vote for the 2015 DRMA Marketer of the year.  I decided I needed to peer into the DRMetrix database to help me decide how to vote.

For Long Form, year to date spend data ranks the marketing titans Beach Body as #1 and Guthy-Renker as #2 although neither were nominated this year.  Our #3 advertiser is SharkNinja followed by Total Gym Fitness in our #4 spot.  Bare Escentuals and Zumba rank #15 and #21 respectively.  If you are swayed by spend data, and love the infomercial art form, then SharkNinja (formally Euro-Pro) deserves serious consideration.

For Short Form, of the various nominees this year, Draft Kings has catapulted itself into the lead over the past 60 days with the largest TV spend.  Prior to this onslaught from the King, only one other nominee came close, Telebrands.  In fact, Telebrands held the lead through July of this year.  None of the other short form nominees have come close to the spend of Draft Kings or Telebrands.  I’m not sure yet how to vote on this one because Draft Kings and Telebrands are so very different.  Telebrands is a traditional AS SEEN ON TV marketer, whereas Draft Kings provides an online daily fantasy sports service.  If I decide to vote for a short form advertiser this time around, I’ll certainly give my vote to one of these two outstanding nominees.

Hey wait, when I went to vote I was able to choose my top 3 candidates.  Whew!  That made things easy.

I hope this additional information will help you in casting your vote this year!  You are going to vote aren’t you?  🙂

Prior to starting DRMetrix, for the majority of my career I have been on the agency side of the business.  Of the various costs associated with running an agency, the cost of airings verification service has ranked near the top.  At DRMetrix, we’re excited to debut a new service that we believe will change the landscape for DRTV airings verification.  AVS™ (a simple name which is short for “airings verification service”) is DRMetrix’s first commercial product offering.

If you’re not already familiar, traditional airings verification services require that you insert an “encoding” into your commercial.  Companies like Kantar, Nielsen, and Civolution have built monitoring systems that report whenever a commercial airs containing one of their encodings.  This solution provides agencies with a more immediate way to know when and where each commercial airs.  That being said, one of the downsides of this approach is that there can be mistakes made with the encodings themselves and these services also tend to be expensive.

Instead of encodings, AVS™ identifies commercials using pattern recognition, a technology that has been around for some time.  Shazam, and other popular mobile apps that use pattern recognition technology, have shown us that it’s possible to identify content with amazing speed and accuracy.  AVS™ extends the idea further by utilizing both audio and video pattern recognition technologies to identify unique TV spots and infomercials.  Early on, we wondered if detection of toll free numbers and web addresses, using optical character recognition, could be combined with this technology to provide a more cost effective approach to identify and report unique variations of DRTV spots and infomercials.  After nearly three years of development the answer is a resounding yes!  Today, AVS™ is able to identify unique spots or infomercials as well as the associated toll free number and/or URL which appears in each airing.  Equally exciting is the fact that AVS™ is able to record each unique airing for online playback.  So, if you’ve ever wondered if your commercial really ran, now there is a way to watch the spot as it aired.  Seeing is believing and AVS™ now makes this possible.

Since AVS™ is based on passive pattern and optical character recognition, the service is also able to provide airings detail for any spot or infomercial.  In the field of competitive media research, there is now a way to see on a real time basis when and where the competition is running.  AVS™ is also able to report historic airings for any DRTV campaign.  Click here to review all of the breakthrough features of AVS™!

For more information or to arrange a demo of AVS™, you may contact DRMetrix at [email protected]

DRTV has changed dramatically over the years and its time for DRTV research to also change.  At DRMetrix, our goal is to monitor and track all short and long form DRTV creative across the networks we monitor 24/7.   This commitment has required significant investment in technology in order to automatically recognize and track all creative that includes any combination of phone number, URL, or SMS response code.  This technology has allowed DRMetrix to build the industry’s most comprehensive and complete database for DRTV media research.  It has also challenged us to study the blurry line between brand/direct and brand.

Most likely, we will never have universal agreement on how to categorize campaigns between DR, brand/direct, and brand. At DRMetrix, we believe that true DR campaigns leverage a clear call to action where consumer response measurement, and cost per call, order, or MER, drives media execution.  DRMetrix’s technology is the first of its kind to be able to recognize when campaigns use unique phone numbers, promotion and/or URL codes, across different networks.  We assign these types of DR campaigns to either our product, lead generation, or long form categories.  DRMetrix also recognizes DR campaigns that have a  call to action but use the same phone or URL across all networks.  We currently categorize these types of vanity campaigns as brand/direct.  However, things become a bit more blurry when we consider campaigns with a phone and/or URL but without any real call to action.  Is putting a small phone number in your ad really enough of a qualifier to be considered brand/direct?  DRMetrix is in the process of refining our approach to consider factors such whether or not a clear and obvious call to action exists.  In the absence of a clear call to action, we plan to categorize such campaigns as “brand” instead of “brand/direct”.  At this time, DRMetrix only plans on including offers in its brand category that display some way for consumers to respond such as a phone, URL, or SMS code.  Even in the absence of any kind of call to action, it is DRMetrix’s commitment to track all campaigns that include a prominently displayed phone, URL, or SMS code regardless of whether they are considered DR, brand/direct, or brand.

As a way to further categorize campaigns, DRMetrix is working to analyze campaign airings to determine the percentage of units attributed to ROS flights vs. targeted program buys. We believe the industry will value being able to quickly tell which brands and campaigns are focused on ROS buys vs. general execution.  In time, DRMetrix hopes to make the blurry line between Brand/Direct and Brand a little more clear.